Robert Radford
Encyclopedia
Robert Radford was a British bass singer who made his career entirely in the United Kingdom
, participating in concerts and becoming one of the foremost performers of oratorio
s and other sacred music. He had equally great success in a broad spectrum of operatic roles, ranging from Wagner to Gilbert and Sullivan
, due to the strength and burnished beauty of his well-trained voice.
in London, mainly under the conductor Alberto Randegger
, but also received lessons from Battison Haynes and Frederick King. He had natural dramatic gifts which from the outset suggested an operatic career, but his early professional life was devoted particularly to oratorio and the concert platform.
Music Festival in 1899. He appeared for Henry J. Wood at a Queen's Hall
prom on February 9, 1900 in Arthur Sullivan
's The Martyr of Antioch
(with Esther Palliser, Ada Crossley
, Lloyd Chandos, W.A. Peterkin and the Nottingham Sacred Harmonic Society). He was also a soloist at Wood's Trafalgar Day
Centenary Concert of 21 October 1905 (at which Wood's Fantasia on British Sea-Songs was first performed). In 1906 he became the principal bass soloist in the Handel Festival (The Crystal Palace
) concerts, and remained so until the 1920s.
On 26 May 1911, he took part in the Sheffield Festival Chorus performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor for the London Music Festival, with Agnes Nicholls
, Edna Thornton, Ben Davies and others; on the following day he was with Gervase Elwes and others in the big Leeds Choral Union performance of the St Matthew Passion. He was also in the Leeds Chorus performance of the Mass in B minor, with Carrie Tubb, John Coates
and others, in the 'Three B's' Festival' of April 1915, again at Queen's Hall
, under Henri Verbrugghen
with the London Symphony Orchestra
.
(introducing the Paris version of the Venusberg scene for the first time in England), along with Robert Watkin-Mills and others. In 1904 he made his first appearance at Covent Garden
, as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni
under Hans Richter
. He was again engaged for Richter's Ring cycle in 1908, taking the roles of Fasolt in Das Rheingold
, Hunding in Die Walküre
, and (according to another source) Hagen in Götterdämmerung
.
He was then engaged with the Grand Opera Syndicate at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
, and he was successively engaged by Thomas Beecham
in his productions at various venues, including Covent Garden, Drury Lane
and His Majesty's Theatre
. In Beecham's production of Wagner's Ring cycle he again played Fasolt, opposite the Fafnir of the younger Norman Allin
, who succeeded him as Britain's foremost bass. Among his best-known roles were Mephistopheles (Gounod's Faust
), Osmin (Il Seraglio), Sarastro (The Magic Flute
), the Father (Charpentier
's Louise
), Ivan the Terrible
and Boris Godunov
(title role), which he was the first to sing in English. In April 1914 he was in the first English-language performance of Wagner's Parsifal
with English soloists (with the London Choral Society, Carrie Tubb, John Coates
, Thorpe Bates and Dawson Freer).
in June 1903. His first 12" records were 'It is enough' and 'Lord God of Abraham' from Mendelssohn
's Elijah
in 1906-7 (supplementing 'For the mountains shall depart', and 'Is not his word like a fire' on 10" records): over the next few years he added 'I am a Roamer' (Mendelssohn), 'Nazareth', 'Vulcan's Song' (Philemon and Baucis), and 'She alone charmeth my sadness' (Gounod), 'O ruddier than the cherry' (Acis and Galatea), 'Hear, ye winds and waves' (Scipio), 'Honour and Arms', 'Arm, arm ye brave' (Judas Maccabaeus) (Handel), 'Arise ye subterranean winds' (Purcell), and many of the better and longer ballads of the time. He recorded the standard bass and tenor duets ('Larboard Watch', 'The Gendarmes', 'Excelsior', 'The moon hath raised her lamp above', and 'Watchman, what of the night'?) with John Harrison, and also recorded English songs in quartette arrangements (e.g., Pearsall's 'O, who will o'er the downs so free?') with John Harrison, Maud Perceval Allen or Alice Lakin, and Edna Thornton.
in the first major project to record Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
s, together with the singers Bessie Jones, Violet Essex, Nellie Walker
, Edna Thornton, George Baker
, Ernest Pike
, Derek Oldham
, Peter Dawson and others. Besides these, he recorded several new titles from his own repertoire in 1918-20. On March 26, 1919 he appeared at a Royal Philharmonic Society
Concert singing 'Wotan's Farewell' (Die Walküre
Act 3) under Landon Ronald
. He appeared in The Dream of Gerontius
with the Northampton Musical Society under Charles King on October 29, 1920, with Norah Dawnay and Gervase Elwes: this was to be the last occasion on which Elwes sang the work. The artists (together with W.H. Reed and others) stayed at the Elwes home at Little Billing for the occasion.
In 1920-22, he became a founder Director of the British National Opera Company
, and also became an important member of its singing company. He sang in two Philharmonic Society performances of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, first under Felix Weingartner
in March 1924 with Florence Austral
, Margaret Balfour
and Frank Titterton
, and again in October 1925 with Dorothy Silk
, Muriel Brunskill
and Walter Widdop
, under Albert Coates
. He continued to make recordings for HMV
after the advent of the electric microphone in 1925. In late acoustic and early electric sets of Wagnerian passages, he is heard at some length (often opposite the great soprano
Florence Austral
), as Alberich in Das Rheingold
, Wotan in Die Walküre
, and Hagen in Götterdämmerung
, as Gurnemanz in Parsifal
(HMV D 1025-29) and as both Hans Sachs and Pogner in Die Meistersinger, all under the baton of Albert Coates
: the recorded sound is mostly disappointing. In 1924 it was stated that in oratorio his voice was best suited to bass parts in The Creation (Haydn) and in the Handel oratorios.
Radford is said to have suffered from ill-health all his life, and it was this handicap which prevented him from developing his career on the international scene. A photograph of him (but no account of his career) is shown by Michael Scott in his important survey The Record of Singing
. He is the subject, too, of a brief story in Peter Dawson's autobiography. Norman Allin
, 10 years his junior, was his greatest successor among English basses.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, participating in concerts and becoming one of the foremost performers of oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s and other sacred music. He had equally great success in a broad spectrum of operatic roles, ranging from Wagner to Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, due to the strength and burnished beauty of his well-trained voice.
Early career
Even as a youngster, Radford possessed a deep and resonant voice. He studied at the Royal Academy of MusicRoyal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London, mainly under the conductor Alberto Randegger
Alberto Randegger
Alberto Randegger was an Italian-born composer, conductor and singing teacher, best known for promoting opera and new works of British music in England during the Victorian era and for his widely-used textbook on singing technique.-Life and career:Randegger was born in Trieste, Italy, the son of...
, but also received lessons from Battison Haynes and Frederick King. He had natural dramatic gifts which from the outset suggested an operatic career, but his early professional life was devoted particularly to oratorio and the concert platform.
Concert and Oratorio, 1899-1915
His debut was at the NorwichNorwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
Music Festival in 1899. He appeared for Henry J. Wood at a Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
prom on February 9, 1900 in Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's The Martyr of Antioch
The Martyr of Antioch
The Martyr of Antioch is an oratorio by the English composer Arthur Sullivan. It was first performed on 15 October 1880 at the triennial Leeds Music Festival, having been composed specifically for that event...
(with Esther Palliser, Ada Crossley
Ada Crossley
Ada Jemima Crossley was an Australian singer.Crossley was a daughter of E. Wallis Crossley, a farmer. She was born at Tarraville, Gippsland, Victoria...
, Lloyd Chandos, W.A. Peterkin and the Nottingham Sacred Harmonic Society). He was also a soloist at Wood's Trafalgar Day
Trafalgar Day
Trafalgar Day is the celebration of the victory won by the Royal Navy, commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson over the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. The formation of the Navy League in 1894 gave added impetus to the movement to recognise...
Centenary Concert of 21 October 1905 (at which Wood's Fantasia on British Sea-Songs was first performed). In 1906 he became the principal bass soloist in the Handel Festival (The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
) concerts, and remained so until the 1920s.
On 26 May 1911, he took part in the Sheffield Festival Chorus performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor for the London Music Festival, with Agnes Nicholls
Agnes Nicholls
Agnes Nicholls was one of the greatest English sopranos of the 20th century, both in the concert hall and on the operatic stage....
, Edna Thornton, Ben Davies and others; on the following day he was with Gervase Elwes and others in the big Leeds Choral Union performance of the St Matthew Passion. He was also in the Leeds Chorus performance of the Mass in B minor, with Carrie Tubb, John Coates
John Coates (tenor)
John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
and others, in the 'Three B's' Festival' of April 1915, again at Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
, under Henri Verbrugghen
Henri Verbrugghen
Henri Verbrugghen was a Belgian musician, who directed orchestras in England, Scotland, Australia and the United States....
with the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
.
Operatic career before 1914
As early as November 1900, Henry Wood had engaged Radford for his uncut performance at Nottingham of the first two acts of TannhäuserTannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
(introducing the Paris version of the Venusberg scene for the first time in England), along with Robert Watkin-Mills and others. In 1904 he made his first appearance at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
under Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
. He was again engaged for Richter's Ring cycle in 1908, taking the roles of Fasolt in Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
, Hunding in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, and (according to another source) Hagen in Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
.
He was then engaged with the Grand Opera Syndicate at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, and he was successively engaged by Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
in his productions at various venues, including Covent Garden, Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
and His Majesty's Theatre
His Majesty's Theatre
His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen is the largest theatre in north-east Scotland, seating more than 1400. The theatre is sited on Rosemount Viaduct, opposite the city's Union Terrace Gardens. It was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1906...
. In Beecham's production of Wagner's Ring cycle he again played Fasolt, opposite the Fafnir of the younger Norman Allin
Norman Allin
Norman Allin was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice...
, who succeeded him as Britain's foremost bass. Among his best-known roles were Mephistopheles (Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
), Osmin (Il Seraglio), Sarastro (The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
), the Father (Charpentier
Charpentier
Charpentier is the French word for carpenter and a French surname. A variant spelling is Carpentier. In English the name is spelled Carpenter while in German it is Zimmermann....
's Louise
Louise (opera)
Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
), Ivan the Terrible
The Maid of Pskov
The Maid of Pskov , is an opera in three acts and six scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the drama of the same name by Lev Mei. The story concerns the Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his efforts to subject the cities of Pskov and Novgorod to his...
and Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
(title role), which he was the first to sing in English. In April 1914 he was in the first English-language performance of Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
with English soloists (with the London Choral Society, Carrie Tubb, John Coates
John Coates (tenor)
John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
, Thorpe Bates and Dawson Freer).
Recordings, 1903-1914
Radford had an early and successful relationship with the gramophone, beginning with a song called 'Ho! ho! hear the wild winds blow' for the Gramophone CompanyGramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
in June 1903. His first 12" records were 'It is enough' and 'Lord God of Abraham' from Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
in 1906-7 (supplementing 'For the mountains shall depart', and 'Is not his word like a fire' on 10" records): over the next few years he added 'I am a Roamer' (Mendelssohn), 'Nazareth', 'Vulcan's Song' (Philemon and Baucis), and 'She alone charmeth my sadness' (Gounod), 'O ruddier than the cherry' (Acis and Galatea), 'Hear, ye winds and waves' (Scipio), 'Honour and Arms', 'Arm, arm ye brave' (Judas Maccabaeus) (Handel), 'Arise ye subterranean winds' (Purcell), and many of the better and longer ballads of the time. He recorded the standard bass and tenor duets ('Larboard Watch', 'The Gendarmes', 'Excelsior', 'The moon hath raised her lamp above', and 'Watchman, what of the night'?) with John Harrison, and also recorded English songs in quartette arrangements (e.g., Pearsall's 'O, who will o'er the downs so free?') with John Harrison, Maud Perceval Allen or Alice Lakin, and Edna Thornton.
After the First World War
Radford continued to record from time to time during the Great War, and was a valuable asset to the promenade concerts in that period. In 1917, he joined with the company of George W. Byng of the Alhambra TheatreAlhambra Theatre
The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was...
in the first major project to record Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s, together with the singers Bessie Jones, Violet Essex, Nellie Walker
Nellie Walker
Nellie Verne Walker , was an American sculptor best known for her statue of James Harlan in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, Washington D.C.-Early years:...
, Edna Thornton, George Baker
George Baker (record singer)
George Baker was an English singer. He is remembered for singing on thousands of gramophone records in a career that spanned 53 years, beginning in 1909...
, Ernest Pike
Ernest Pike
Ernest Pike was an English tenor of the early 20th century who recorded under his own name and variously as Herbert Payne, Arthur Brett, Eric Courtland, Arthur Gray, Bernard Moss, Dick Denton, Charles Nelson, Allan Dale and Richard Pembroke; - Herbert Payne being the one most commonly used...
, Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
, Peter Dawson and others. Besides these, he recorded several new titles from his own repertoire in 1918-20. On March 26, 1919 he appeared at a Royal Philharmonic Society
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
Concert singing 'Wotan's Farewell' (Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
Act 3) under Landon Ronald
Landon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
. He appeared in The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
with the Northampton Musical Society under Charles King on October 29, 1920, with Norah Dawnay and Gervase Elwes: this was to be the last occasion on which Elwes sang the work. The artists (together with W.H. Reed and others) stayed at the Elwes home at Little Billing for the occasion.
In 1920-22, he became a founder Director of the British National Opera Company
British National Opera Company
The British National Opera Company presented opera in English in London and on tour in the British provinces between 1922 and 1929. It was founded in December 1921 by singers and instrumentalists from Sir Thomas Beecham's Beecham Opera Company , which was disbanded when financial problems over...
, and also became an important member of its singing company. He sang in two Philharmonic Society performances of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, first under Felix Weingartner
Felix Weingartner
Paul Felix von Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
in March 1924 with Florence Austral
Florence Austral
Florence Austral was an Australian operatic soprano renowned for her interpretation of the most demanding Wagnerian female roles, although she never gained the opportunity to appear at the Bayreuth Festival or the New York Metropolitan Opera.She was born Florence Mary Wilson, but adopted the...
, Margaret Balfour
Margaret Balfour
Margaret Balfour was an English classical Contralto of the 1920s and 1930s. She is best remembered as the angel in Elgar's own recorded excerpts of The Dream of Gerontius and one of the 16 soloists in the original performance of Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music .She was also recorded by HMV...
and Frank Titterton
Frank Titterton
Frank Titterton was a well known British lyric tenor of the mid twentieth century. He was noted for his musicianship.Titterton's career was mainly in the concert hall...
, and again in October 1925 with Dorothy Silk
Dorothy Silk
Dorothy Silk was an English soprano.She studied in Birmingham, then in Vienna under Johannes Ress. She made her London debut at Queen's Hall...
, Muriel Brunskill
Muriel Brunskill
Muriel Brunskill was an English contralto of the mid-twentieth century. Her career included concert, operatic and recital performance from the early 1920s until the 1950s...
and Walter Widdop
Walter Widdop
Walter Widdop was a British operatic tenor who is best remembered for his Wagnerian performances. His repertoire also encompassed works by Verdi, Leoncavallo, Handel and Bach.-Career:...
, under Albert Coates
Albert Coates (musician)
Albert Coates was an English conductor and composer. Born in Saint Petersburg where his English father was a successful businessman, he studied in Russia, England and Germany, before beginning his career as a conductor in a series of German opera houses...
. He continued to make recordings for HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
after the advent of the electric microphone in 1925. In late acoustic and early electric sets of Wagnerian passages, he is heard at some length (often opposite the great soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Florence Austral
Florence Austral
Florence Austral was an Australian operatic soprano renowned for her interpretation of the most demanding Wagnerian female roles, although she never gained the opportunity to appear at the Bayreuth Festival or the New York Metropolitan Opera.She was born Florence Mary Wilson, but adopted the...
), as Alberich in Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
, Wotan in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, and Hagen in Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
, as Gurnemanz in Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
(HMV D 1025-29) and as both Hans Sachs and Pogner in Die Meistersinger, all under the baton of Albert Coates
Albert Coates (musician)
Albert Coates was an English conductor and composer. Born in Saint Petersburg where his English father was a successful businessman, he studied in Russia, England and Germany, before beginning his career as a conductor in a series of German opera houses...
: the recorded sound is mostly disappointing. In 1924 it was stated that in oratorio his voice was best suited to bass parts in The Creation (Haydn) and in the Handel oratorios.
Radford is said to have suffered from ill-health all his life, and it was this handicap which prevented him from developing his career on the international scene. A photograph of him (but no account of his career) is shown by Michael Scott in his important survey The Record of Singing
The Record of Singing
The Record of Singing is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record.It was issued on LP by EMI, successor to the British company His Master's Voice — perhaps the leading organization in the early history of audio recording.The...
. He is the subject, too, of a brief story in Peter Dawson's autobiography. Norman Allin
Norman Allin
Norman Allin was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice...
, 10 years his junior, was his greatest successor among English basses.
External links
- Brief biographical notice with photo http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Radford-Robert.htm
- Six portraits of Robert Radford in NPG http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=as&grp=1096%3BSingers&lDate=&LinkID=mp59316